Neutron stars in fiction Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The idea of a super-dense star composed of neutrons was proposed in 1934, but was not popularized until the discovery of pulsars in 1967.

Uses in literature

  • Larry Niven may have been first with his short story Neutron Star, which appeared in October 1966.
  • The same neutron star plays a minor role in another Larry Niven story, Protector (1973).
  • Stephen Baxter's novel Flux (1993) features miniature humans living inside a neutron star.
  • Robert Forward's novel Dragon's Egg (1980) and its sequel Starquake (1989) center around intelligent life evolving on a neutron star.
  • Death of a Neutron Star is book 17 in a series based on Star Trek: Voyager.
  • Alastair Reynolds's novel Revelation Space (2000) features a neutron star named Hades. The star is revealed to be an alien supercomputer later in the book.
  • Jon Hundred, main character in Don de Brandt's novel Steeldriver, uses a weapon called the Hammer, made from the core of a neutron star.
  • A Neutron Star is the central feature of the Omega-41 system of the video game Freelancer. It emits strong radiation, the result of a nova that took place shortly before humanity arrived in the Sirius Sector.

Uses in films and television

See also

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